Urinary and/or faecal incontinence causes many people to use various types of absorbent products, such as incontinence pads, diapers etc.
Monitoring and timely change of absorbent products may sometimes be difficult, not only when it comes to babies wearing diapers but also when it comes to adults who due to the inability to control the urinary or faecal function find it difficult to know when voiding has taken place and hence when to change the absorbent product. This problem may also concerns people suffering from physical or mental disorders preventing proper monitoring and change of absorbent products. The problem of properly monitoring and timely changing absorbent products is often most apparent during night when the wearer of the product is asleep.
Improper monitoring and change of absorbent products may cause urinary and faecal leakage from the product. To many people suffering from incontinence, this is a huge problem often causing feelings of shame and humiliation.
Several solutions for improved monitoring of use of absorbent articles are known from prior art.
US 2007/0252713 discloses an absorbent sensor pad worn by a patient. One or more sensors that measure urinary voiding parameters are integrally formed in the pad. The sensors may include impedance sensors, strain gauges, temperature sensors, accelerometers, pH sensors, and chemical sensors that measure wetness, volume, temperature, pH, and contents of urine voided by a patient as well as the posture and activity of the patient. The voiding data sensed by the sensors may be stored in a voiding log which may be transmitted to an external device connected to the sensors.
US 2009/0062758 relates to a wetness monitoring system for e.g. a diaper. The system includes a wetness sensor capable of counting the number of discrete insults, and an alarm that is triggered after a critical number of insults, or when a certain period of time has elapsed since the last change of product.
US 2011/0263952 discloses an incontinence management system for monitoring wetness in absorbent articles. The system comprises input for receiving sensor signals indicative of a presence of wetness in an absorbent article and a user interface for communicating with a user of the system.
However, known solutions for monitoring use of absorbent articles often involve complex and expensive products and/or monitoring systems that are not readily available to the public.